“Witch,” a man calls out sharply from the back of the growing cluster of people. “‘Twas you brought them here.”
“Next time, I’ll let the raiders spill your guts, Tom,” she snaps back.
“We don’t want any trouble from their kind,” Master Tom replies, tone more respectful this time.
“If she stays here, the wolves will take it as defiance,” cautions an older woman, setting down her basket and planting her hands on her hips, “and bring their wrath down on all of us.”
“There will be no trouble nor wrath from the wolves,” Mistress Nina says, matter-of-factly, “so long as you remember your lore and respect. You know their ways. They will claim the lass when they are ready, and not before.”
With a few mumbled comments, people go on their way until only Rosie is left. Without an audience to support her, she proves to be no match for Mistress Nina's firm look. Tossing her head, Rosie bustles off to resume whatever errand she was on.
Mistress June watches, wringing her hands. “Better get her home, Nina,” she says. “They’re all fearful, and fearful folks are fools more often than not.” The smile she directs at me is kind, but also wary.
At least there is someone who will look me in the eye, even if her expression makes me feel worse.
The bookshop door behind me opens.
I fall back and nearly collide with Master Peter.
He sets me forward. “I was out the back when I heard shouting! What was all that commotion about?” His eyes land on me. “Ah. Evanthe.” He sighs.
“It is not the lass’s fault,” Mistress June says. “They are superstitious dunderheads. One moment, all too happy for the beasts to save them, and then acting like the wolves are unfeeling monsters the next.”
“Ah, theyarefearsome,” Peter says, giving me a sideways look. “No one wishes to anger them.”
“Well, talk such as that, of casting a young lass into the forest to freeze to death, will not please them for sure!” Mistress June adds, impassioned now. “Ontheirterms, that is how the wolf tithe works. Aside from which, Nina, you just said as they will need the mating approved?—”
“June,” Mistress Nina warns.
Mistress June snaps her mouth shut.
“Approved?” I ask.
Mistress Nina grimaces. “The pack leader will need to approve any such claiming. Decide whether he deems it a fitting tribute for the pack’s protection of the town. He may make the wolves who desire you wait or prove themselves in some way. He may… give you to other wolves within the pack if he considers them more worthy.”
My eyes grow wide. June and Peter are listening with undisguised interest. It would seem that being claimed is rare enough to draw everyone’s attention.
This talk of being passed off to a different wolf—or wolves—is deeply unsettling. I remember the two wolves that saved me in the square; there are three sets of marks on my door. That suggests a triad, which Mistress Nina has indicated is the most common configuration. And already I am sure they are mine, and I theirs.
My throat pulses hot as I think of the black wolf with the silver flashes through his fur.
The one who marked me.
“The mark is made,” Mistress June says, into the silence, while looking at my throat.
My hand flies there, covering it. There was nothing there this morning when I brushed my hair in the mirror.
“It is changing,” Mistress Nina says. “Come, Evanthe. Let us get home out of this biting wind.”
With a nod to Peter and June, we head straight back to the house.
“I don’t want a different wolf,” I blurt out. I have been in denial, but today has moved me beyond that, into acceptance. “The people talk like they are monsters, but I don’t believe that.”
“My dear,” Mistress Nina says gently, as we arrive at her shop door, “Wolves are laws unto themselves. But you are connected to the one who marked you—and, through him, the other two of his triad. If the pack leader does not honor their request, he will likely have a fight on his hands.”
This is all so much to take in. My eyes drop to the cobbled street and then drift to my door and the marks. “Goddess,” I say. Once faint scores, they now glow with an otherworldly force. “What does that mean?”
“Let’s talk inside, lass.” She opens the door to the shop, holding it for me to enter behind her.
